Wasting your time with things I find interesting, amusing, or enraging. Reinke does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations

It’s time for Bernie Sanders to sharpen his pencil and see what programs should be cut so that he and his fellow greedy politicians can live within the means they are provided by a generous citizenry, instead of grandstanding for more and more.

*** end quote ***

I was with you right up until the phrase “the means they are provided by a generous citizenry”. Sorry, but the characterization is all wrong.

There’s no “generosity” in the equation.

The gang in power will send men with guns to take you to jail or kill you. There’s no “voluntary compliance” with the will of “The Master”. It’s the 800# gorilla in the room. Comply or die!

So we are robbed a slice at a time. The Gang In Power are nobody’s fool. There’s no way they can control 300 Million pissed off Americans. About a third of whom are armed. And, about a tenth can give as good as the get.

(The drug gangs are the finest “light infantry”. Who like indigenous rebels can blend into the population seamlessly. The Totalitarians can’t keep “contraband” out of their prisons; so how can they keep the people unarmed if they are in revolt. Note how well MayorForLife Bloomberg does keeping guns off the streets in New York.)

So, the DUTY of every American is to piss off the “sleeping” “We, The Sheeple” at every opportunity. I like that movie quote.

“I fear all we have done is awakened a sleeping giant.” — apocryphal quote attributed to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto played by Mako in the movie ‘Pearl Harbor’

I want the sleeping Tiger — the American patriots — to wake up. The Tea Parties are the first vestige. Note how fast the TSA backed off when the “holiday revolt” was announced.

The biggest extender is the ethanol credit, a boondoggle that distorts agriculture markets and causes considerable economic and environmental damage, but is popular with politicians because big agribusinesses recycle some of their undeserved profits back to Washington in the form of contributions.

The dozens of other extenders include special loopholes for solar and wind power, education spending, bonds for Louisiana and NASCAR racing.

There are strong policy arguments against these kinds of special tax breaks, especially since we could use the revenue to finance lower tax rates — but most people are even more upset by the dead-of-night process used to put these goodies into the tax bill.

The behavior on Capitol Hill reminds me of the movie classic, “Animal House”: After their fraternity has been placed on “double-secret probation,” John Belushi and the rest of guys at the Delta House decide to go out in a blaze of glory with a toga party.

Likewise, the politicians on Capitol Hill just got placed on the equivalent of probation by a Tea Party uprising. Yet rather than mend their crooked ways, they’re throwing a massive party with our money.

theodp writes “The Irish government has been given a stark warning from some of the biggest American companies in Ireland on the risk of a mass exodus if the country’s controversial low corporate tax rate is raised in return for an IMF/EU bailout to shore up the country’s beleaguered banking system. According to The Telegraph, a statement signed by senior execs at Microsoft, HP, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, and Intel points out that although Ireland’s tax rate may be low in European terms, it is not when compared with locations such as Singapore, India and China.

*** end quote ***

Once again demonstrating that the only correct corporate tax rate is zero. Only real human beings pay taxes.

* DECLARATIONS
* OCTOBER 1, 2010
The Twister of 2010
America’s political landscape will never be the same.
* By PEGGY NOONAN

*** begin quote ***

The primary reason is the severity of the moment. But another is that negative ads worked so well in the past. For a generation, the American people have been told their politicians are lowlifes. You know what they now think of them? They think they’re lowlifes! People don’t really expect high character from their political figures anymore. “Congressman Smith cheated on his wife.” That’s her problem. Cut my taxes.

*** end quote ***

I think Ms. Noonan understates the demand.

It’s no longer JUST “cut my taxes”. I think the Tea Parties are now on to the game. It’s cut spending, cut taxes, and cut out all the other “barbara streisand”.

See we were fooled under Reagan, who cut taxes, but not spending. The tax and spend Democrats were repelaced by the borrow and spend Republicans.

So, the meme has changed.

Reduce Gooferment and taxes will come along naturally.

I always find it interesting that the Gooferment “cuts” (what I would call) Customer facing services. They want the Taxpayer and Taxconsumer to say I want that. (When I was on Wall Street if I’d done that, I’d have been looking for a job. The challenge was always to cut your budget WITHOUT cutting services. Figure it out.)

“We, The People” seem to be on the warpath to cut everything.

Is this a glacial shift? Yes. Will it last? Yes. (Our parent’s generation was scared by the Depression; we’ll be too.)

Will it be enough to save the Republic? I don’t know!

When the Gooferment shuts down the Federal Department of Education, then we will be on the road to recovery.

I almost submitted on your blog, but decided this should be a ‘personal’ post! I found your letter quite interesting given your Libertarian label. Isn’t this a little hypocritical? Maybe it is hitting ‘too close to home’? Being a FOWG like me? lol

*** end quote ***

Well, exxxxcuuuuse me. :-)

Think my “libertarianism” is not “pure” enough? That’s why libertarians rip each other up. Over who is the “pure-est” in the land. Very counter productive to success.

(You could have made it a public post. I take criticism well. I think.)

Let me explain my thinking on EEO and corporations. Maybe you can show me the error of my ways?

When a thief steals your wealth, you have the right to self-defense. Part of self-defense is working the system to get back what was unjustly taken. Think Robin Hood stealing back the King’s unjust taxes. Fighting against injustice is always the correct thing to do.

Corporations are a creations of the Gooferment. So, any diktats leveled on their subordinate entities are of no concern. In my little L libertarian world, there should be no “limited liability companies”. Just people doing business as. You might have “groups” operating under a “trade name” but liability would be unlimited but shared under a contractual arrangement. Thus a “BP” would be responsible for cleanup and damages.

(Sigh!)

But we are NOT in my little L libertarian world.

If the thief has ways of recovering some of your wealth, then, as a principle of common law, I must mitigate my loss.

Some libertarians believe that “true libertarians” should be “pure” and complete forego any voluntary interaction with the Gooferment. These are the anarcho capitalist faction.

Some libertarians believe that “true libertarians” should be confrontational and get in the Gooferment’s grill at every opportunity. These are the social action / peaceful civil disobedience faction. (Think like Gandhi. Of course, it is never moral to initiate force or violence. It’s always moral to defend yourself. In proportion. Can’t kill a politicians and bureaucrats because they rob you of a few dollars. But, in Ruby Ridge, Waco, or Kelo, you defend vigorously.)

Some libertarians believe that “true libertarians” should pick their battles. Steal anything you can back if you can. Pay when you have to. So, each time an opportunity to “interact” with the Gooferment appears, you decide: comply, ignore , or “snipe”. One motivation is to recover lost wealth or liberty. One is to demonstrate the Gooferment’s oppression. One is to gum up the works (i.e., pay tickets in pennies; use their system against them to demonstrate to them or others that they are tyrants).

My EEO post was that the Gooferment permits another part of itself (i.e., corporations) to injure people while the Gooferment is claiming to champion the people and protect them from age discrimination. It circles back on itself. If you look at “corporations” as part of the Gooferment, then the illusion really dissolves.

Does that make sense? Strip away the costumes & labels, and it all seems much clearer.

imho,
fjohn

p.p.s., For example, that’s why like the “University of Maryland” is really the Gooferment in disguise. And, they should not be allowed to fool “We, The People” with different costumes and labels. It’s just all just Gooferment. Big! Overpowering! And, ubiquitous. They call themselves the UoM but it’s just an extension of Big Government. When you total up, you have to figure: politicians and bureaucrats added to all the people who are the “feeders at the trough” of Big G!

Near the ceiling
Solutions in a world where bonds have nowhere to go but down
By Eytan Avriel
Published 02:35 09.08.10
Latest update 02:35 09.08.10

*** begin quote ***

3. The third solution may sound weird, but it’s the most practical of the three: Accept the reality.

Yields are going to stay low for a long time. That’s how it is. It may change one day, but until then, keep a stiff upper lip. Grasp the reality with both hands and figure out how to live in a world of low returns.

*** end quote ***

Get ready for the “Lost Decades”. Like Japan, the USA is stuck in a morass of Gooferment disasters. At least a natural disaster comes and goes relatively quickly. This one, of our own making, is goign to be here for a long time.

1. End the personal and corporate dole; 2. Dismiss gooferment public education; 3. Stop the various wars — foreign and domestic; 4. Repatriate the troops home; 5. End the drug war; pardon all non-violent drug offenders; 6. Downsize ALL gooferments; 7. Eliminate all taxes but tariffs and excise.

Yet Another Reason Not to Make Tax Avoidance Your Top Goal
For Immediate Release
August 06, 2010

*** begin quote ***

Congress cuts a tax break retroactively – again!

Congress creates a program that offers tax benefits. Taxpayers participate in the program. Congress then eliminates the program’s tax benefits, retroactively denying the benefits to the taxpayers who had participated in good faith.

If you think you can trust Congress to honor its obligations, think again. Congress has changed tax rules retroactively several times before — and it just did it again.

*** and ***

By the way, Congress currently says that money placed into a Roth IRA can be withdrawn tax-free in the future.

Do you really believe that?

*** end quote ***

One of my initial reluctances to get involved with IRAs was the “political risk”.

We’ve seen several trial balloons about the Gooferment seizing the IRA / 401Ks in exchanged for an enhanced social security benefit. Where else are the politicians and bureaucrats going to find the amounts of money they need to keep the merry-go-round turning. And, all they have to do is issue diktats to the relatively small finite number of “custodians” to turn it over. It’ll be easier than FDR’s gold confiscation.

Does this start the NEXT american revolution?

Do the Sheeple have to see the boxcars destined for the camps waiting to be loaded before they wake up?